1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of tape rule, in particular to the hook plate of end piece of the measuring tape. A magnetic object is put inside the space formed of hook plate, and is wrapped by a holding element to cover the front and rear surfaces of the hook plate of hanging portion of the measuring tape.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is known to public that the tape rule is a motive and convenient measuring tool. As shown in FIG. 1, in general, the measuring tape 12 of connectional tape rule is reserved in a housing 11. At the end portion of the measuring tape 12, there is an end piece 13. Said end piece 13 contains a connecting plate 14 to be attached onto the end of the measuring tape 12, and a hook plate 15 perpendicularly extended from the connecting plate 14. In using the tape rule, by using the hook plate 15 of the end piece 13, it is merely necessary for people to pull the end piece 13 and then put the end piece 13 against the surface of an article or hook onto the end of the article to be measured.
However, said end piece 13 of tape rule has some disadvantages as follows:
In order to make the hook plate of the end piece be connected to the measuring tape as an entity, and to prevent inconvenience of carrying the tape rule due to the end piece, the area of hook plate is made as small as possible. However, if the area of hook is too small, it is difficult to hook onto an article and easy to slide away from the article to cause inaccurate measurement, to improve such problem happened in the end piece of conventional tape rules, U.S. Pat. No. 6,546,644 B2 discloses an end piece for attachment to the end of measuring tape. A cross curvature tape measure supports its own weight when it is extended horizontally and is held in an upright position. A perpendicular hook at the end of the measuring tape can be used to secure the end of the measuring tape to an edge of an object. A hook that extends above the curved surface of the measuring tape allows measurements to be secured from below an object while maintaining the upright and self supporting position of the tape. An adhering or magnetic means attached at the end of the measuring tape further assists in allowing measurements to be taken without causing the incidental collapse of the measuring tape. Such and end piece may be removably attached, and may be adapted to fit on existing tape measures. US Patent Application No. 2004/0064962A1 also discloses a soft stop-proof hook head of a measuring tape is located at one end of the measure tape and comprises a ruler hook. A surface of a ruler hook is enclosed by a soft elastomer. The soft elastomer is made of a flexible material. When the soft elastomer is pressed, it generates an elastic resistance; in measuring, the ruler hook is coupled to a measured bench mark of an object to be measured with a slide-stop effect. Moreover, the soft elastomer is extended with a slide piece for enhancing the slide-stop effect.
From the above two former applications, they all install magnetic object to front end of the end piece of measure tape, such that when the end piece is in contact with object made of metals, according to the magnetic nature of the end piece, the said object will be attached to the end piece of measuring tape. To increase the strength and stability of attachment are also designer and manufacturer's object of improvement.
However, the above mentioned structures are depend on magnetic object being installed to the front end surface of end piece, since only one side of magnetic object is attached by glue to end piece, the parts would fall apart easily due to the glue loss its adhesive effect after repeat contact in use; or because the magnetic piece of end piece is extruded outside the end piece, the parts are easily fall apart due to repeat contact in use. Furthermore, since objects to be measured can be in many different forms, not all object to be measured can be hooked by the hook plate of the end piece, therefore rely solely on the magnetic nature of the end piece to attach the object is insufficient.
In order to overcome the inconvenience of the design of the above cases, the inventor of present invention has experiment, conduct research and make improve of present invention to reach its final outcome.